CROMER, EVELYN BARING, I sT EARL British statesman and diplomatist, was born on Feb. 26, 184r, the ninth son of Henry Baring, M.P., and Cecilia Anne, eldest daughter of Admiral Windham of Felbrigge Hall, Norfolk. He passed through Woolwich Academy into the Royal Artillery in 1858, and was appointed in 1861 A.D.C. to Sir Henry Storks, high commissioner of the Ionian Islands; he acted as secretary to the same chief during the inquiry into the Jamaica outbreak in 1864. While in the West Indies he took the opportunity of visiting the United States, and spent some time in Grant's camp before Peters burg. After his return to England he passed through the Staff col lege and served in the War Office in what became later the Intelli gence Division. In 1872 he went out to India as private secretary to his cousin, Lord Northbrook, and in 1877 was appointed British commissioner of the Egyptian public debt office.
The appointment of a comparatively untried major of artillery as the British representative on a financial board composed of rep resentatives of all the Great Powers was considered a bold one. Within a very short time it was recognized that the Englishman, though keeping himself carefully in the background, was unmis takably the predominant factor on the board. He was mainly re sponsible for the searching report, issued in 1878, of the commis sion of inquiry, appointed to investigate the financial methods of the Khedive Ismail ; and when the khedive was driven to abdicate in 1879, Major Baring became the British controller-general in the renewed Dual Control. He maintained that administrative reform and the easing of the burdens of the fellahin were prerequisite to the collection of interest on the bonds. But he had hardly been in office more than six months before Lord Ripon asked him to go out to India as financial member of the viceroy's council. His Egyptian reputation had preceded him at Simla, but during the three years he spent in India he proved to be a wise and masterly economist.
When the British Government, saddled with the responsibility of re-establishing ordered government in Egypt after Arabi Pasha's revolt (see EGYPT), recalled Sir Evelyn Baring (he had received a K.C.S.I. for his Indian services), he returned to Egypt with the style of British agent and consul-general, with pleni potentiary diplomatic rank. Though junior to the other members of the Diplomatic corps, he was in fact the most powerful, be cause it was known that he had the backing of the British army of occupation. From the date of his return (Sept. 1883), the his tory of Sir Evelyn Baring, who became Baron Cromer in 1892, G.C.B. in 1895, viscount in 1897, and earl in 1901, is identified with the history of Egypt, and requires only the barest mention here. From the outset he realized that the task he had to perform could only be effected piece-meal and in detail. His very first measure was one which, though severely criticized at the time, has been justified by events. In any case it showed that he shirked no responsibility, and was capable of adopting heroic methods. He counselled the abandonment, at least temporarily, by Egypt of its authority in the Sudan provinces, already challenged by the mandi. His views were shared by the British ministry of the day and the policy of abandonment enforced upon the Egyptian Government. At the same time it was decided that efforts should be made to re lieve the Egyptian garrisons in the Sudan and this resolve led to the mission of General C. G. Gordon (q.v.) to Khartum. Lord Cromer subsequently told the story of Gordon's mission at length, making clear the measure of responsibility resting upon him as British agent. The proposal to employ Gordon came from the British Government and twice Sir Evelyn rejected the suggestion. Finally, however, in view of the strength of British popular feel ing, Baring gave way and agreed that Gordon would be "the best man," if he clearly understood that his duty was to evacuate the Sudan, not to hold it. Gordon was instructed in London to go by the Nile route, and Baring vetoed his journey via Suakin, a deci sion which he afterwards repented. Once Gordon was on his way Baring gave him all possible support, and in the critical matter of the proposed despatch of Zobeir to Khartum, he—after a few days' hesitation—cordially endorsed Gordon's request, but the British Government refused.
From Jan. 1884 till the catastrophe at Khartum became known in Feb. 1885, the management of Egyptian affairs was more than usually complicated by the obstruction of the bondholders and the conflicting instructions of the British Government. Gordon's death was a terrible blow to Baring, who regretted that he had not held firmly to his own first judgment. But Baring did not allow his private sorrow to unnerve him in serving Egypt. He gave his mind to securing the reluctant assent of the bondholders to a new loan, necessary for the irrigation works and the relief of the bur den on the fellahin. With the assistance of Sir Colin Scott Mon crieff, in the public works department, and Sir Edgar Vincent, as financial adviser, these two great departments were practically put in order before he gave more than superficial attention to the rest. The ministry of justice was the next department seriously taken in hand, with the assistance of Sir John Scott, while the army had been reformed under Sir Evelyn Wood, who was suc ceeded by Sir Francis (afterwards Lord) Grenfell. Education, the ministry of the interior, and gradually every other department, came to be reorganized, or, more correctly speaking, formed, under Cromer's carefully persistent direction. All this was accomplished with no further patent of authority than that of an adviser to the Khedive Tewfik. The death of Tewfik in 1892 threatened danger for his son and heir ; Abbas was in Europe and a minor. But Jef ore the Sultan at Constantinople could interfere in the succession, Baring had brought Abbas to Egypt and had circumvented the fact of his minority by reckoning his age in lunar months. His work then proceeded unhindered.
In the meantime, the rule of the mandi and his successor, the khalif a, in the temporarily abandoned provinces of the Sudan, had been weakened by internal dissensions ; the Italians from Massawa, the Belgians from the Congo State and the French from their West African possessions, had gradually approached nearer to the valley of the Nile; and the moment had arrived at which Egypt must decide either to recover her position in the Sudan or allow the Upper Nile to fall into hands hostile to Great Britain and her position in Egypt. Lord Cromer was as quick to recognize the moment for action and to act as he had 15 years earlier been prompt to recognize the necessity of abstention. In March–Sept. 1896 the first advance was made to Dongola under the Sirdar, Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener (q.v.) ; and on Sept. 2, 1898, the battle of Omdurman finally crushed the power of the khalif a and restored the Sudan to the rule of Egypt and Great Britain. In the negotiations which resulted in the Anglo-French Declaration of April 8, 1904, whereby France bound herself not to obstruct in any manner the action of Great Britain in Egypt and the Egyptian Government acquired financial freedom, Lord Cromer took an active part. He also successfully guarded the interests of Egypt and Great Britain in 1906 when Turkey attempted by encroach ments in the Sinai Peninsula to obtain a strategic position on the Suez Canal. All this he effected in the face of the greatest difficul ties—political, national and international—and at the same time raised the credit of the country from a condition of bankruptcy to an equality with that of the first European powers. He was in England when the Denshawai executions took place, and when he returned to Egypt he found the country seething with discontent. In April 1907, in consequence of the state of his health, he re signed after 24 years in Egypt. In July of the same year parlia ment granted £50,000 out of the public funds to Lord Cromer in recognition of his "eminent services" in Egypt. In 1908 he pub lished in two volumes Modern Egypt, in which he gave an adroit yet impartial narrative of events in Egypt and the Sudan since 1876, and dealt with the results to Egypt of the British occupation of the country. Lord Cromer took some part in the political life at home after his retirement, joining the free-trade wing of the Unionist party.
But in his leisure he turned to the study of the classics, the fruit of which appeared in a lecture delivered to the Classical As sociation in 191 o on Ancient and Modern Imperialism. Three vol umes of Political and Literary Essays consist of reviews contrib uted to the Spectator. Even during his busy years in Egypt he wrote his Paraphrases from the Greek Anthology. He returned to Egyptian affairs in a supplement (1915) to Modern Egypt. In 1916 the Government called on him to preside over the Darda nelles Commission. The strain was too great, and after one of the meetings, he collapsed. He died on Jan. 29, Lord Cromer married in 1876 Ethel Stanley, daughter of Sir Rowland Stanley Errington, 11 th baronet, but was left a widower with two sons in 1898; in 1901 he married Lady Katherine Thynne, daughter of the 4th marquess of Bath.